


Cover My Eyes

by turntechGodhead



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Stupid Boys, and ummm, i guess?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-21
Updated: 2012-07-21
Packaged: 2017-11-10 09:42:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/464882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/turntechGodhead/pseuds/turntechGodhead
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dave was a co-leader on this meteor and if one of his people, a fellow knight even, was down, he was…probably supposed to do…something? Yes, he was supposed to do something.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cover My Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently I just have a thing for these two comforting the frick out of each other...this was supposed to, maybe, be part of a larger fic, but I might just forget that idea and leave it as is? I don't know. Either way, I think it's fine on its own.

It’s not like Karkat was ever a particularly happy camper, but usually he was a lot more enthusiastic about his displeasure. Karkat was a guy who liked to be heard, so his most recent behavior worried  _everyone_ , even Dave though he was loath to admit it. To Karkat’s credit, he wasn’t totally despondent or depressing or anything, but he was just a little less  _Karkat_. He argued less often and when he did, less vehemently, he seemed constantly lost in thought, and the worst of it (in Dave’s opinion) was that he seemed to have forgotten all about Dave. He didn’t follow him around, or spy on him and Terezi, he never rose to the bait when Dave picked on him. He mostly just ignored him.

Dave wouldn’t call himself an attention whore or anything, but he  _did_ like attention, especially from Karkat. It was fun trying to figure out what would rile him up, and Karkat, in turn, was good at pushing Dave’s buttons. It was frustrating sometimes, but never in a bad way. It was fun, like a game.

He figured that one of the girls would probably do a better job trying to pull Karkat out of his funk than he would. Kanaya and Terezi were Karkat’s intimate friends, after all, and Rose could be tactful when she chose to be. But none of them knew what to do, after all, they’d never known Karkat to get that way.

It was probably a job for Karkat’s moirail, but Dave had no idea where Gamzee was and therefore had no way of asking him to deal with it.

There was only one thing to do. Dave was a co-leader on this meteor and if one of his people, a fellow knight even, was down, he was…probably supposed to do…something? Yes, he was supposed to do something.

So he transportalized into Karkat’s room unannounced.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Karkat clutched his chest, rising from his chair abruptly in surprise. “Strider, you almost gave me a fucking  _bloodpusher infarction_.”

“My bad.”

Karkat shrugged wearily and sat back down, “What is it?”

“Nothing, man. Just came to hang out.”

“…Uh.” Karkat narrowed his eyes at him. “Why the fuck would you do that?”

Dave stepped off the transportalizer pad and walked over to him, sitting on Karkat’s desk. “What, all of a sudden we can’t hang out?”

“‘All of a sudden’? Implying we hung out in the past?”

“We way the fuck have, Vantas, come on.”

Karkat rolled his eyes and slumped down in his chair, “Whatever.”

This was harder than Dave thought. What was he supposed to do? He didn’t know thing one about talking to people about their problems, and he’d never been the best at lifting people’s spirits. He wished Jade was here, or at least that he could reach her somehow for her counsel.

“So, is this what humans do when they hang out? Sit there and stare into space?”

Little twerp. Dave looked down at him, reaching for a retort, and Karkat turned his eyes away immediately.

“Hey,” Dave said.

Karkat looked back up and he  _saw it_. Dave  _knew_  now why he’d been so distracted lately.

“Uh…” Dave hesitated. He knew he shouldn’t point it out since obviously Karkat had noticed already. But he’d said “hey” and now he had to follow that up with something. “Wanna play a game?”

“Not really.”

“Yeah you do. It’s fun.”

“Ugh. What is it?”

“Uhh. Truth or dare.”

Karkat gave him a giant eye-roll and leaned back in his chair, glaring up at the ceiling. “Don’t you need more people for that game? Why don’t you go play your stupid wiggler game with the others.”

“I wanna play with  _you_.”

“ _Why_?”

“Just ‘cause, Vantas. Come on, don’t be such a schmuck.”

“A what?”

“Truth or dare, come on.”

Karkat groaned and covered his face with his hands, “Dare, I fucking  _guess_.”

Dave sighed, “Okay. I dare you to…lick the bottom of your shoe.”

“What?” Karkat glared at him. Dave leaned his head closer subtly and looked straight into his eyes, glad his shades provided cover. Yeah, there was definitely a ring around his pupils. “That’s the dumbest dare I’ve ever heard.”

“Too bad. Do it.”

Karkat gave a long-suffering sigh and pulled his foot into his lap. He took off his shoe and lifted it up to his mouth, licking the bottom and pulling a face. He tossed it down and kicked off his other sneaker, glaring up at Dave.

“Truth or dare.”

“Dare.”

“I dare you to fuck off.”

“A  _real_ dare, Vantas.”

Karkat huffed, “I dare you to take off that stupid cape.”

“Trying to get me to strip for you?” Dave smirked and pulled off his cape and hood, throwing it over Karkat’s head. Karkat made a snarling sound, much more vicious than Dave had thought him capable of the past few days, and threw his cape to the ground. Dave leaned back on the desk. “Truth or dare.”

“Truth.”

“Are you dating TZ?”

Karkat swelled up with rage, nostrils flaring. His dark, heavy eyebrows came down over his eyes and he clenched and unclenched his jaw. Dave felt a little flutter of relief. He could still piss him off.

“That is none of your fucking business.”

“You picked truth, chief.”

“ _Why_ do you want to know?”

“Just answer the question.”

“I don’t want to play this stupid game.”

“Answer. The question.”

Karkat’s flare of rage flickered out as quickly as it rose. He slumped his shoulders and sighed heavily, “No. I’m not. Truth or dare.”

“Might as well make it fair. Truth.”

“Why did you come here?”

Well, fuck. He supposed he should’ve seen that one coming. Dave shrugged a shoulder, “You’re probably not gonna like it.”

Karkat raised an eyebrow, “What? Did someone send you here?”

“No, dude.” Dave sighed, scratching his chin self-consciously. “Man, I was just—I guess, like, worried, or whatever?”

Karkat stared. “What the fuck? Why?”

“‘Cause. You been like…kinda weird lately. Quiet. Different. You seem a little put out.”

They stared back at each other silently for a long, uneasy moment. Karkat blinked, at a loss for words. He narrowed his eyes and frowned at him suspiciously.

“Are you being sincere?”

“Unfortunately, yeah.”

Whatever Karkat had been expecting, it obviously was far from that. He nodded slowly, taking in his answer, then looked up at Dave. “ I pick truth,” he said.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Karkat held his hand up when Dave opened his mouth to object. “No, honestly, it’s nothing. I don’t know if you can see with those stupid sunglasses on, but if you can, you can probably see that my eyes started changing?”

Dave nodded, “Yeah. We all know the color of your blood though, Vantas.”

“I know. That’s why it’s nothing.” He wrapped his arms around himself and frowned down at his feet. “But it still fucking sucks, I hate looking at them. Even if I avoid mirrors, I know they’re changing. It’s only a matter of time before they’re totally red and I know I should be—embracing it or whatever. But if I didn’t constantly feel like a mutant freak before—and I did, believe me—I definitely will now.”

“Pretty harsh on red eyes there, bro.”

Karkat rolled his eyes and snorted, “Like you can even complain. Humans had nothing even somewhat resembling the stigma my species had against them, yet you still wear sunglasses in a dark fucking meteor.”

“Maybe I wear my shades so you and the ladies don’t swoon to death around me.”

“How thoughtful of you.”

Dave sighed and pushed his shades back on his head, pinning his bangs back. Without them on, he could see the red rings around Karkat’s pupils more clearly. One was still muddled, a reddish swirl in the gray of his iris, but the other was a little wider, more solid, and much brighter. Dave had always thought  _his_ eyes were bright, but the ring around Karkat’s pupil was a bright laser red.

“Your thoughtfulness was for naught,” Karkat said, though he shuffled in his seat uncertainly, trying not to turn his eyes away. “I haven’t even come close to swooning.”

“Well that makes one of us.” Dave waggled his eyebrows. “You’re that much prettier in high-def, Vantas.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

“Seriously, though. I’m not gonna tell you to cheer up, I mean, I know it’s not that easy. But we miss the normal Karkat.”

Karkat shrugged.

“ _I_  miss—like, fighting with you and stuff.”

“How disgustingly sentimental of you.”

Dave kicked his shin, “This is why I never do this kinda thing, see?”

“I still don’t get  _why_ you did this at all.” Karkat stood up, tugging on his fingers and cracking his knuckles uncertainly as he stepped closer. “But it was pretty nice, I guess. So. Thanks. Or whatever.”

It was obvious where this was going. Karkat’s body language always betrayed his intentions; he’d grown up watching too many stupid movies and emulated them subconsciously. That wasn’t to say that Dave minded, though.

“You lied, didn’t you? I did get you swooning.”

Karkat glared and crossed his arms, “You know what, fuck off.”

Dave scooted over to the edge of the desk and tugged on Karkat’s forearms, uncrossing his arms and pulling him closer. Karkat looked at him with his uneven eyes and leaned his face closer.

“So, how much are you going to pay me not to tell anyone you’re secretly a nice guy?”

“That depends on how much you’re gonna pay me not to spill this conversation to everyone.”

“Sold.”

Dave rolled his eyes and reached up to pull him down by the back of his neck with one hand, keeping the other wrapped around his forearm. He kissed him and Karkat seemed none too surprised which was good because, as obvious as Karkat was, Dave wouldn’t put it past himself to epically misread someone. Karkat kissed back, easily, like someone who’d done it before and Dave regretted not pressing for more information about him and Terezi.

For his part, Dave had never done this before. But he figured it couldn’t be too hard, and so far it felt nice. Karkat was warm, and for all that Dave joked around that he smelled, his breath was sweet and his skin smelled light and clean.

“Ow,  _fuck_.” And his teeth were sharp.

Dave pulled away, cupping his hand over his mouth. He licked his lip and found it dribbling a little bit of blood.

Karkat raised his eyebrows, “Kiss much?”

“Obviously not, who am I gonna kiss in this shithole other than you?”

Karkat looked pleased. He leaned back in, pulling Dave’s hand away from his mouth, and kissed his injured lip. “Stupid.”

“ _You’re_ stupid.”

“Well,  _you_ suck at kissing.”

Dave shoved him, though not angrily. Karkat shoved him back and Dave grabbed the front of his dumb oversized sweater and kissed him on the mouth again. His shades fell off the top of his head but Dave barely noticed, feeling as Karkat laughed against his mouth and shoved him away.

He shook his head, straightening his clothes, “You’ve never kissed  _anyone_  before, have you? Wait, what a stupid question, of course not. Who would kiss an idiot like you?”

“You, apparently.”

“Well, we all know what a complete fucking imbecile I can be, so that’s not saying much.”

“Insulting yourself to get to me, there’s the Vantas I know.”

Karkat snorted and smiled in spite of himself. “Whatever.”

“Good to see you again.”

He sighed and leaned back in, taking Dave’s face in his hands and looking at him in mock-seriousness. “Shut up. I’m going to teach you how to kiss a troll now, so pay attention.”


End file.
